Our fight for workers rights goes to Philly, where we find solidarity on a picket line and hear our case argued in federal court

PHILADELPHIA — Several of us drove to Philadelphia this past weekend so we could spend Monday — our 993rd day on strike at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette — listening to attorneys debate the Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh’s case in front of a three-judge panel at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Turns out, it was a big day for folks standing up for workers rights in the City of Brotherly Love. Philadelphia municipal workers had gone on strike a week earlier, so we joined them on a picket line and shared stories. We quickly learned the challenges, anxieties and joys of striking are remarkably similar, no matter whether you’re a sanitation worker, a copy editor, a 911 dispatcher or a reporter.

Our hearing took place in a massive round courtroom with a 30-foot ceiling — a fittingly dignified setting for weighty discussions, we thought. Perhaps we were a bit naive.

Our strike began Oct. 18, 2022, and we’ve waged a long but successful fight. The National Labor Relations Board issued a ruling in our favor last September, reaffirming and adding to a decision made in January 2023 by an administrative law judge. The Post-Gazette has appealed every ruling.

And just a few weeks ago, the NLRB requested the Post-Gazette be held in civil contempt after refusing to comply with a court order to restore the health insurance plan the company illegally took away from guild workers in 2020.

The judges decided to hear arguments on both cases — the PG’s appeal of the NLRB decision and the board’s contempt request — on the same day.

We listened to an hour or so of testimony (there was a five-minute break between the hearing for the full case and the contempt case), then the judges called attorneys from both sides into an off-the-record sidebar discussion that lasted five minutes. Court then adjourned. Those watching on livestream were left wondering what happened. So were those of us in the courtroom. We’re getting accustomed to waiting but wondered, “What’s happening?” We were still reeling and somewhat dumbfounded by a few of the arguments made on behalf of the company.

Here’s an example: At one point, attorney Brian M. Hentosz, representing the Post-Gazette, argued that security personnel employed by the newspaper and holding cellphones in front of their faces were not necessarily shooting video of striking workers and thus conducting surveillance, a violation of federal labor law. There’s no evidence the security personnel were shooting pictures, Hentosz said.

Judge Cindy Chung then held up her hands to mimic someone clasping a phone and taking pictures. She said anyone holding a phone in such a manner would be assumed to be shooting video or still photographs. This is especially the case if those clutching the phones are security personnel hired during a strike.

How is this not seen as shooting a video? the judge asked.

“They could be watching a video,” Hentosz replied.

Really? The statement struck us as absurd, yet it was part of a serious argument before judges sitting one step below the U.S. Supreme Court.

At another point, Hentosz called the newspaper a “failing business” that was losing millions of dollars each year and struggling to transition to an all-digital news operation. The company should be allowed to set work conditions it sees as necessary, he said. We’ve been hearing this for years, by the way, and yet the PG continues to publish a print edition two days a week.

Maneesh Sharma, associate general counsel for the AFL/CIO, said the union asked to see the company’s books to find proof of the PG’s financial claims, but the company refused.

“So take that for what it’s worth,” Sharma said.

Hentosz said it was never the PG’s goal to undermine the union. Struggling companies need to do what they can to stay in business, he said, seeming to make the argument that, when difficult times arrive, managers of unionized businesses should be allowed to discard workers rights instead of working with employees to meet challenges.

That’s not the way the process works, the NLRB argued. The PG may think the best way to make decisions is unilaterally, but “that’s the antithesis of bargaining,” NLRB attorney Joel Heller said. “That’s just not what bargaining is.” In fact, it strips the union of any say, taking away workers rights.

During the contempt hearing, Chung sought to clarify why the company had not complied with the order to restore the 2020 health care plan.

“Are you saying it’s impossible?” she asked. “Are you saying you can’t afford this?”

Hentosz claimed the organization that provided the health care plan in place five years ago wouldn’t offer the same plan but did not answer the question about affordability.

Then Heller told the judges, “They just don’t want to do it. It’s not impossible.”

He added, “They didn’t claim an inability to pay.”

Check back with the PUP — we’ll be updating the story of the appeal as we learn more.

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Those on strike in Philadelphia are members of the city’s largest blue-collar union, AFSCME District Council 33. That union represents nearly 9,000 people who work in the sanitation and sewer departments, as well as others who work as crossing guards, 911 dispatchers and at the airport and morgue.

The strikers maintain several picket lines. We joined a crew of 40 in front of the Philadelphia Municipal Services Building. The workers are fighting for better wages and benefits, and their spirits were high, despite the grueling heat. Several told us they’ve had to take second jobs in order to live in the city. Rent, gas, parking, food, car payments, insurance — it all eats up a paycheck.

The workers told us they’ve had great support. Bus drivers and motorists tooted their horns as they passed by on John F. Kennedy Boulevard. A line of yellow-shirted construction workers on break voiced their support. Mayor Cherelle Parker, however, remains as unmoving as trash piles up in the streets.

We joined the workers for an hour, and lent our voices to some of their chants: “If you don’t like the smell, blame it on Cherelle,” and then “LL Cool J, he said no way.” This one referenced the rapper who pulled out of a July 4 festival in support of the striking workers.

We told the picketing workers how long we’d been on strike. One responded, “That’s insane!” She asked how we’d maintained the strike that long. We told her it wasn’t easy, but we have a lot of support from our allies in Pittsburgh and from around the country, and we help each other out. “You guys hang in there,” she said. “It’ll be all right.”

We taught them one of our chants — “Get up, get down, Pittsburgh is a union town” — that they readily adapted to their city. Then we joined a march down to a city government building a block away, where union President Greg Boulware stood on the steps and told his members, “I know you’re mad, and you should be. But we have to stick together. You deserve respect. Philadelphia works because we work.”